Zend Server Z-Ray for WordPress developers

by · May 2, 2015

We all know very well how WordPress simple but at the same time rich additions and extensions, and that’s why it has become so famous. However, its richness and abundance can cause system overload and slow performance of your site.

Choosing the wrong template that will generate a plurality of database queries, or to use a large number of plug-ins that will lap memory may directly affect the rate of appearance of the site on the screen. That is why we need tools that easily allow us to recognize the problem – it inhibits the download, or a plug-in is responsible for the memory leak.

This is the purpose Zend Server Z-Ray.

Zend Server Z-Ray

Z-Ray displays all that is happening “under the hood”, but rather shows all the necessary information about each query. This makes it easy to identify problem areas and make sure that we do everything correctly.

Z-Ray is automatically added to each page generated on the server that allows you to instantly find bugs without additional effort and does not affect the development of your application.

Queries to the database

Z-Ray displays a complete list of requests caused by WordPress. To be more precise the query, its parameters, the query result, its duration, the number of rows affected and a link to the location from which the request code was called. In addition, you can get a stacktrace, to be exact, detailed list of features and scripts that led to this request.

The list of queries to the database WordPress

Information directly from WordPress

In the presence of Z-Ray, no need to install additional tools to obtain information from WordPress for your specific application, such as a list of active plug-ins and their load times, cache objects and necessary for their storage capacity, the planned schedule “crowns problems” and their frequency calls made from your template functions and time of their performance, and more.

Simplified debugging and profiling

Z-Ray provides the ability to debug code without additional configuration or code changes. No need to install additional plug-ins or extensions of browser WordPress. Everything you need is already on the panel Z-Ray, and you can easily start debugging the code in your preferred development environment, such as Zend Studio or PHPStorm.

Debugging in a mobile environment

For the development of projects are not browser-based, such as mobile applications or web services, there is Z-Ray Live! Z-Ray Live displays detailed information not only about the query, but also on all requests that come to the server. An example of this method of work and additional information can be seen in the following video clip:

Enhanced Z-Ray

One of the significant advantages of Z-Ray is the ability to add custom panels in which you can display the information you have collected. For example, if you use a PHP Framework that does not have a prepared extension, you can easily obtain and display data using Z-Ray API.

Explanation of how to write your extension is here, and the code and documentation are on site GitHub.

License

Since the Z-Ray is part of Zend Server, in the beginning you need to download and install Zend Server.After a 30-day trial period, you will need to purchase a commercial license.

Also, it is possible to ask for a free license if, for example, you are taking an active part in the development of the open source software, such as WordPress. More information is available here.

There are still many convenient and useful tools in the Z-Ray and Zend Server, that are not mentioned.For more information and details are available at the following links: